For
those of you who aren’t familiar with the premise behind Last Kiss,
John Lustig purchased the artwork and rights to the entire run of Charlton’s
First Kiss. Lustig then proceeds to rewrite and rearrange the comics
into full-length stories or strips to hilarious results.

This issue is called “The Dick Giordano Issue” and with good reason.
Dick Giordano is a veteran of the romance comics field and was a contributor
to several stories in the original run of First Kiss. Lustig teams with
Giordano to present a totally new story this issue, “Widow Ms. Muffet!” in
which a shallow beauty searches for “an old codger with a sick heart and a
healthy bank account.”

The rest of the issue also features several Giordano drawn stories reworked
by Lustig: “Royal Romance” in which two princesses discover America is not
the land of their dreams and “Oh, Darling! You’re Such an Animal!” where
a beautiful young woman finds fortune by selling pets and her “services”
door to door. And to top off this Giordano fest, Lustig includes an interview
with the man himself.

But that’s not all, Last Kiss #2 is 48 pages long and crammed with
even more zaniness. Lustig includes a lot of his two and three panel strips,
most of which appear first in the Comics Buyer’s Guide. Last issue a
contest was run for readers to write their own Last Kiss story and the
two winners are included here as well. I found the one by Chuck Hart to be the
most giggle inducing in large part due to his incredibly funny potty puns.

The last story and my favorite of the issue “Remember to Forget Me!”
(art by the Vince Colletta Studio) presents the tale of a beautiful young
woman (again!) who rescues a man in the desert but what are the secrets of his
mysterious past...?

I’m sure you’ve guessed that I loved this comic. I grew up buying
Charlton Romance comics at the local convenience store and I get a big kick
out of seeing them appear again albeit in a much different and far funnier
form. If you’re a fan of the romance comics genre or just a fan of humor
comics, buy Last Kiss and support this unique title.

Look for this on your local comic shop’s shelves in late September/early
Ocotober or if
they were silly enough not to order it write to Shanda Fantasy Arts, P.O. Box
545, Greenbrier, AK 72058. You can also visit www.lastkisscomics.com
for more information about this comic.